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'The Rez,' a Poem by Dennis Tom for National Poetry Month

Dennis Tom

4/5/13

The following poem comes to us from Dennis Tom, Navajo, and for those unfamiliar with types of poetry we'll point out that it's a sestina -- an originally-Italian poetic form that hs challened many a poet over the years. The sestina is structured around six words -- the six lines in each of the first six stanzas end with the same words, in a different order each time. The seventh stanza is three lines long, with each line containing two of the poem's central words. Writing a sestina that makes any sense isn't easy; writing one that is actually good is harder still.

THE REZ

It is calm and quiet here on the rezThe wind is coldYet there is plenty of clean airThe grass is fresh and greenThe morning summer skies are turquoise blueThe sky is clear and open

The door to my hogan is openThe sun is rising on the horizon of the rezThe water near the corral is blueAnd coldColored with a hint of greenA sense of peace is in the air

The pappus dances in the early morning airWild, free and openSage greenThere’s nothing like being on the rezThe air that rushes into your lungs is crisp and coldA 1975 Chevy truck is parked outside painted blue

The paint use to be Navy blueThe tires are no longer filled with airIt sits there alone in the coldThe doors are unlocked and the driver’s side remains openFor the past 34 years it has been parked and silent here on the rezThe crack that runs across the windshield is a thin line of green

A rough blanket covers the seat completely in Army greenOn the floorboard is an enamel coffee cup still vibrant white and blueReminders that my father lived here on the rezHe breathed this same airHis heart pure and wide and openHe never complained about the cold

Perhaps that is why I like walking in the coldThe wisdom he shared is planted in my mind ever growing tall and greenMy mind remains clear and openMy father gave me a bracelet made of silver and stones of blueI inhale long and deep this ancient clean Navajo airThis is my home on the rez

This land is wide and open and has seen its share of winter coldI grew up here on the rez and climbed in hundreds of tree tall and greenI now drink from the enamel blue coffee cup and breathe that same air

POST A COMMENT

Comments

(1)
woksape wokita
When you first came to this land
It was full of life, energy, Spirit and all that you needed
From ocean to ocean, from the arctic to gulf it was paradise
After tens of thousands of years that you were here, it looked like it was the first day you arrived
Then the whites came and they were hungry
insatiable like a swarm of locust they swarmed and consumed till they burglarized it all
Look at them now as they go overseas to steal the rest of the world and they will never stop till they consume it all and then in finality; themselves
They are addicted to their greed, to their hunger and in 400 years look what they’ve done here
They burned down most of the forests and replaced them with sterile fields of corn and wheat, dirty cities of toxic reek, stripped the mountains, hills and laid everywhere their ugly roads, wires and pipes
Sprayed their crops with pesticides and herbicides until the poison was in every river, every stream, every gulp
They polluted the air with their foul spewing factories and disgorging black smoke plants
They wiped out all the game and made it a desert and then smiled as they sold the lots for parking and scenic routes
What of you and yours
What did your culture do here in the thousands of years of occupation?
don’t ever forget
Yours is the superior society
What did they do at Sand Creek?
What happened at Wounded Knee?
What did they do to Crazy Horse?
And why did Black Kettle dive out a hospital window?
(2)
What happens to your children now?
Where are your young men?
Who takes care of the Elders anymore?
Why are your women beaten and abused?
So many have joined their armed forces
And this is the worst cut of all
As plastic Indians tell me like little big man and standing bear
We fight for America now and it makes us proud while our children are beaten down
They tried to make you white and be like them outside and in
But do you hate the air, earth and sky like they do?
Do you only think of toys and your belly?
Is that what you want to be always angry, narcissistic and addicted to what you never sate?
Their violence and hate is the core of their purpose
Can anyone walk the streets of their cities at night without fear?
Look at their hungry and needy forgotten and destitute while their rich drive right on by oblivious
Mansions iron fenced and guarded and gated next to parks full of tents of the homeless and jobless and its against the law to feed them
Yet in the success of their raping of the land, air and water
The whites has signed their own death sentences
What gave them their power is also their poison
For they now turn on themselves
The violence of their soul is eating them alive
Look at their religion
It speaks of love and compassion
It talks of justice and ahimsa
Do they practice what they preach, have they done what they said they would?
They throw their kids, mentally ill and needy into horrible prisons
They feed their young poison processed ‘food’ just for profit
(3)
They pass forward their bills to their kids future and then say; “ kids come first”
They send their warriors to die for $, lies and markets and make all pledge allegiance to a stained bloody flag that rises atop dead upon the millions
They are psychotic suicidal maniacs hell bent on their own negative self-destructive demise
They are ravenous locusts heading like lemmings to the sea of their own annihilation and will take the world with them
They only defeated you because they had the numbers, unity in their racism, lies, guns and violence
Not by their faith, not by their culture, not by their moral or spiritual superiority
You have the far more advanced culture
You care about the land, air and water
You care about the earth and all life upon her
You care for the great spirit who gave us all everything
They foul their own nests
They are self-indulgent selfish materialistic temper throwing spoiled children
They consume beyond the need while the fat and rich steal from the lean and deprived
The rich rob the poor and they call this the american way
False charities and agencies throw you spoiled bones and second hand throw away’s
Tourists drive by and say; ‘my my isn’t that sad that they live like that’
They buy a few trinkets and then go home to their pools and mortgages and they then forget
But these days are coming to an end ghost dancers are coming home again
You are Human Beings and the Great Spirit has heard your suffering
Endure and stay true to your faith for a day is nigh
The day when redemption is at hand
The first shall be last the last first and what is wrong will be turned right for once and for all

The above Plains photo of civilization killing off the Buffalo and to defeat or Tame the Already first Civilized Native Americans so that the Land could be fenced and parceled for market. And then manufacturing autos to drive onto roadways that furthered they purposes.